Seychellois Creole, also known as Kreol or Seselwa, is the French-based creole language of the Seychelles

Seychelles

Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....

. It shares official language

Official language

An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...

 status with English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 (in contrast to Mauritian Creole

Mauritian Creole

Mauritian Creole is a French-based creole language spoken in Mauritius. In addition to the French base of the language, there are also some words from English and from the many African and Asian languages that have been spoken on the island.- Sociolinguistic Situation :Mauritian Creole is the...

, which has no official status in Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

).

Description

Since its independence in 1976, the government of the Seychelles has sought to develop the language, with its own orthography and codified grammar, establishing Lenstiti Kreol (the Creole Institute) for this purpose.

Language	| Word
Creole	Nou		tou	bezwen		travay	ansanm	pou	kree	nou	lavenir
French (IPA)	/nuz/	/a.vɔ̃/	/tus/	/bə.zwɛ̃/	/də/	/tra.va.je/	/ɑ̃.sɑ̃bl/	/pur/	/kre.e/	/nɔtr/	/av.nir/
French	Nous	avons	tous	besoin	de	travailler	ensemble	pour	créer	notre	avenir
Gloss	We	have	all	need	of	work	together	to	create	our	future

In Creole, the definite article (derived from the French le, la and les) forms part of the word, so that 'the future' is lavenir (as opposed to the French l'avenir). The possessive is formed by adding the pronoun, so that 'our future' is nou lavenir, literally, 'we-the-future'. Similarly in the plural, les Îles Éloignées Seychelles in French ('the Outer Seychelles Islands') becomes Zil Elwanyen Sesel in Creole. Note the z in Zil, as, in French, "les Îles" is pronounced /le"zil/.

Text Samples

(Lord's Prayer

Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...

)

Ou, nou papa ki dan lesyel,

Fer ou ganny rekonnet konman Bondye.

Ki ou renny i arive.

Ki ou lavolonte i ganny realize

Lo later parey i ete dan lesyel

Donn nou sak zour nou dipen ki nou bezwen.

Pardonn nou pour bann lofans

Ki noun fer anver ou,

Parey nou pardonn sa ki n ofans nou.

Pa les tantasyon domin nou,

Me tir nou dan lemal.

49 fables of La Fontaine were adapted to the dialect around 1900 by Rodolphine Young (1860–1932) but these remained unpublished until 1983.

(see also Koste Seselwa

Koste Seselwa

"'" is the national anthem of Seychelles.- Lyrics :-External links:**...

)

External links

• Seychelles Creole Vocabulary List (from the World Loanword Database)
• 21st Creole festival, October 2006 (In Creole)